Vonleh was in line buying “like nineteen super nice water bottles” right after the loss last night to the Toronto Raptors. The fan said he only had a weed grinder on him and asked Vonleh if that was okay. Vonleh said it was chill.

According to Johnson, an Oregon State student who I reached by phone, Vonleh didn’t seem confused at all by the request.

Related

“You walk into a grocery store with your grinder; that’s already Portland,” Johnson said. “Secondly, the Blazers are at Safeway just hanging out which is a normal thing here. And then they’re down to sign a grinder. It’s a whole bunch of funny things coming together.”

It’s all very matter of fact.

Johnson added that wants to get Cliff Robinson, who played for Portland from 1989 until 1997 and now owns a marijuana business, to sign the grinder next.

Like this article?

Sign up for the The Big Lead email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning.

Success

Thanks for signing up.
You'll be waking up a little more awesome tomorrow.

Whoa!

Something went wrong.

In 2002, former Trail Blazers Damon Stoudamire and Rasheed Wallace were cited for marijuana possession. Perhaps he should seek their autographs to the grinder as well.

Related

]]>http://thebiglead.com/2016/12/27/portland-trail-blazers-noah-vonleh-autographed-fans-weed-grinder-for-him/feed/0LA Clippers v Portland Trail BlazersbryankalbroskyBrandon Marshall does not remember his last 3 TD game because of painkillershttp://thebiglead.com/2016/12/07/brandon-marshall-painkiller-comments-san-francisco-49ers-new-york-jets/
http://thebiglead.com/2016/12/07/brandon-marshall-painkiller-comments-san-francisco-49ers-new-york-jets/#respondWed, 07 Dec 2016 23:13:13 +0000http://thebiglead.com/?p=553371The last time Brandon Marshall played in San Francisco, he had three touchdowns. But he doesn’t remember it because he was on painkillers.

The September 14, 2014 game was the NFL’s debut at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Marshall had five catches in a win for the Chicago Bears.

Here’s what he said about the game on a conference call with reporters on Wednesday before his New York Jets play the San Francisco 49ers this week (via Niners Wire):

“I don’t really remember much about that game because I worked really hard to get back from my high ankle. I don’t want to go there. I’ll say it. I took a couple pain pills that masked the pain. I really wasn’t supposed to play. I came back from a high ankle within ten days. I was supposed to be out four to six weeks. I don’t remember much from that game. I just remember catching those balls. And that was pretty much it. So whatever”

Let’s take a moment for that news to settle — an NFL receiver basically blacked out on the field because of his pain medicine.

“Henderson has Crohn’s disease and uses marijuana to deal with the pain resulting from the illness and two intestinal surgeries. As his agent Brian Fettner said after his first suspension: “There is zero allowable medical exemption for this per the NFL; however, there clearly should be.”

Crohn’s Disease is chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. According to Palm Beach Post, doctors removed two and a half feet of Henderson’s gastrointestinal tract in January. Seven months ago, he wore an ileostomy bag attached to his stomach that he had to empty every hour.

Once the top-rated high school offensive lineman, he was suspended three times while he played college football at Miami. He told the Sun Sentinel in 2014 that marijuana use led to each disciplinary action.

He was literally suspended 10 games for taking his medicine for Crohn’s disease. We’re having fun. https://t.co/VEkQ7IPs33

According to another Crohn’s patient interviewed by The Big Lead, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic, the disease is debilitating. The patient takes medical marijuana to combat the symptoms.

The patient said he feels tired, lethargic, nauseous and has difficulty completing everyday activities. While some throw up for hours, every patient is different. Some take the prescription immunosuppressant Remicade, but it is only effective for about half of those with the disease.

Like this article?

Sign up for the The Big Lead email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning.

Success

Thanks for signing up.
You'll be waking up a little more awesome tomorrow.

Whoa!

Something went wrong.

“If I’m at my worst, I need help getting off the couch,” the patient said. “Standing up is an effort. If I can’t eat, I’m sitting there in pain hunched over. If you smoke a little marijuana or eat an edible, the pain goes away very quickly.”

Marijuana is significantly more powerful at fighting inflammation than Tylenol or Advil, advocates say.

Meanwhile, Henderson plays for the Buffalo Bills. As of earlier this month, over 9,000 patients have been certified by their doctors to use medical marijuana in the state of New York

Related

We also spoke with Sam Chapman, Principal at New Economy Consulting, a political and business firm that advises investors on how to navigate the cannabis industry.

“It is absolutely unacceptable that Roger Goodell and the NFL Players Association continues to punish players for using medical cannabis to treat severe pain and other state approved illnesses, while turning a blind eye to far more serious issues such as prescription drug addiction and domestic violence,” Chapman said. “Players should be allowed to use medical cannabis in states that have legalized it, period.”

The NFL Players Association is expected to study the use of marijuana as a painkiller and could ask the league to adjust its policy.

As of now, many marijuana advocates in the NFL talk about the effectiveness of cannabis as a way to help with CTE. Crohn’s adds a new layer to this complicated story.

Henderson's agent Brian Fettner tells AP: "His situation is unique, but the (NFL's) drug policy doesn't line up with the uniqueness."#Bills

Related

If a player fails a test for the fourth time, he enters into a drug rehabilitation program. On a fifth failed test, the player is banned from the NBA. However, the league can only drug test a player four times in one season.

For the sake of Seantrel Henderson and others suffering from similar medical issues, let’s hope the NFL takes a hard look at relaxing its policy.

]]>http://thebiglead.com/2016/11/29/buffalo-bills-seantrel-henderson-suspension-crohns-disease-medication-marijuana/feed/0NFL: Preseason-Carolina Panthers at Buffalo BillsbryankalbroskyRicky Williams is Now the Face of a Weed Gym ... Wait, What?http://thebiglead.com/2016/05/29/ricky-williams-is-now-the-face-of-a-weed-gym-wait-what/
http://thebiglead.com/2016/05/29/ricky-williams-is-now-the-face-of-a-weed-gym-wait-what/#respondSun, 29 May 2016 15:46:53 +0000http://thebiglead.com/?p=521534The free market in America is having its weed moment, which means here come the brands. Snoop Dogg has a weed brand, Woody Harrelson tried to open a dispensary, there are weed cookbooks, weed resorts, weed tours, weed yoga. You name it, somebody is trying to incorporate weed into it.

Naturally, Ricky Williams is the spokesperson for this. He recently became a partner with San Francisco’s Power Plant Fitness and its salty-tongued co-founder Trace William Cohen:

“Having (Williams) as a partner is f****** awesome because he exemplifies a successful and very athletic person who also uses cannabis,” McAlpine said. “Ricky is as smart as he is a talented athlete. And that is a big statement.”

This is true. Nobody more seamlessly combines the identities of (1) stoner and (2) athlete than Ricky Williams, the Heisman-winning running back who spent much of his professional career battling the NFL on one marijuana-related issue or another.

And yet the concept, here, is a little hazy. Marijuana is a known PED for, say, musicians, and it is an effective pain reliever for athletes, but it remains unclear how, exactly, it will help someone achieve a more effective workout than they would sober.

New members will take a “cannabis performance assessment” under the supervision of staff to determine the “most optimal ways to consume.” Some might find a bite out a pot brownie gives them the push they need to complete a circuit training workout, while others find it knocks them on the floor.

Like this article?

Sign up for the The Big Lead email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning.

Success

Thanks for signing up.
You'll be waking up a little more awesome tomorrow.

Whoa!

Something went wrong.

“We will be helping our members figure out how is best for them to ingest their cannabis,” McAlpine tells Tech Insider in an email.

Rough week for Stephen Curry. First the face of the NBA suffered a knee sprain that will keep him out of the playoffs for at least two weeks. Now we find out he’s apparently the face of heroin in Philadelphia. The Chief of SEPTA Transit Police tweeted out this image showing Chef Curry’s face inside tiny baggies of heroin. This is so not jawn.

Like this article?

Sign up for the The Big Lead email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning.

Success

Thanks for signing up.
You'll be waking up a little more awesome tomorrow.

Chris Copier, a senior tight end at Utah State, was arrested on multiple drug charges as well as a weapons offense last week according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Police allegedly made multiple buys from Copier before pulling finally pulling him over.

On Friday afternoon, they stopped him in a vehicle and allegedly found a quarter-pound of marijuana and 46 ecstasy pills inside.

When police searched his home in northwest Logan, officers also found a handgun, about $1,600 in cash, and more drugs, including marijuana, mushrooms, and Xanex, Budge said. The Xanex was “all packaged up for sale,” Budge added.

According to the Utah State website, Copier redshirted the 2010 season at BYU, then did a 2-year LDS mission in Hawaii before playing two junior college seasons at Snow College in Utah. He caught 1 pass for 35 yards at Utah State in 2015.

Like this article?

Sign up for the The Big Lead email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning.

Success

Thanks for signing up.
You'll be waking up a little more awesome tomorrow.

That list constitutes a substantial portion of the anabolic steroids banned by WADA. Vasta said he took the substances more than a year ago, while he had stopped playing rugby. He didn’t think they would have stayed in his body this long.

Like this article?

Sign up for the The Big Lead email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning.

Success

Thanks for signing up.
You'll be waking up a little more awesome tomorrow.

Whoa!

Something went wrong.

]]>http://thebiglead.com/2016/03/25/italian-rugby-player-tested-positive-for-11-banned-substances/feed/0Performance-Enhancing Supplements Make For Big Businesstyduffy7 Sep 1998: Mark McGwire #25 of the St. Louis Cardinals and Sammy Sosa #21 of the Chicago Cubs share a laugh following McGwire''s 61st home run of the year press conference at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri. The Cardinals defeated the Cubs 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Laforet /AllsportThe NCAA Does Many Things Wrong, But Shockingly, They're a Drug Policy Pioneerhttp://thebiglead.com/2016/01/08/the-ncaa-does-many-things-wrong-but-shockingly-theyre-a-drug-policy-pioneer/
http://thebiglead.com/2016/01/08/the-ncaa-does-many-things-wrong-but-shockingly-theyre-a-drug-policy-pioneer/#respondFri, 08 Jan 2016 19:46:42 +0000http://thebiglead.com/?p=495212Mark Emmert does not look like a particularly radical man, and the organization over which he presides, the NCAA, is a paper lion whose own self-interest is in preserving the illusion of its own authority.

So of all America’s institutions, the NCAA would rank low when it came to “likelihood of being at the forefront of American drug policy.”

And yet, here the NCAA is.

It was not met with great fanfare, but last year the NCAA cut in half the penalties for testing positive for marijuana and other recreational drugs. And the Associated Press reported last week that “at least one-third of the Power Five conference schools are not punishing athletes as harshly as they were 10 years ago.”

“The change was intended to make the policy more rehabilitative,” Washington spokesman Carter Henderson told the AP.

And that, you’ll notice, lies a great philosophical distance from the attitudes behind the so-called War on Drugs.

Whatever your opinion on legalization of marijuana or other drugs, there is one thing that is of little dispute: The War on Drugs, as conceived by Richard Nixon and as executed by every president since, has not worked. It’s had no effect on the availability of street drugs or their rates of use, but it has created a massive prison population, the ripple effects of which can be felt on every street corner and feedlot in America.

Over the last 5-10 years, the humans of the world have shown signs they were ready to try something new when it came to drug policy — marijuana policy in particular. From Australia to South America to Europe, countries have decriminalized or outright legalized marijuana. Twenty-three U.S. States — plus the nation’s capital — have made weed legal under some condition or another.

Like this article?

Sign up for the The Big Lead email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning.

Success

Thanks for signing up.
You'll be waking up a little more awesome tomorrow.

Whoa!

Of the 57 schools, 23 since 2005 have either reduced penalties or allowed an athlete to test positive more times before being suspended or dismissed. Ten schools have separate, less stringent policies addressing only marijuana infractions.

Marijuana policy is only one bite of a big pie, but it is a decent barometer of Western attitudes toward recreational drugs. And there has been growing sentiment — from the left and the right — that aggressively punitive drug policy was ineffective, and rehabilitative policy might be worth a try. It’s just that America’s institutions hadn’t seemed to buy in quite yet.

And now here comes … the NCAA? And its member institutions? Acting both independently and together?

Who are these hippies?

It should be noted that coaches have some self-interest wrapped up in seeming cool to teenagers, but the justification for institutions like the NCAA, NFL or NBA testing their athletes for recreational drugs — as opposed to performance-enhancing ones — has always been ambiguous. The NFL and NBA both introduced banned-substance lists in the 1980s, at the peak of a national drug panic. The First Lady made it her mission to get kids to “Just Say No,” and it was a time when violent crime was rising steadily, and AIDS had hit. Those are three different issues, but there was a general sense that the permissiveness of the 60s had evolved into lawlessness, and there was a great cultural pushback against anything that reminded people of hippies.

But those are all outdated fears. Violent crime in America peaked in 1993 and has declined every year since, our understanding and management of AIDS is in a much more advanced place, and recreational drug use — dangerous as it can be — is now seen as more of a personal issue than a cultural one.

It isn’t surprising that America’s sports institutions are starting to take a more practical approach to recreational drugs. It’s just that the American sports institution with the subservient participants who can’t collectively bargain the terms of their employment seems like an unlikely pioneer.

]]>http://thebiglead.com/2016/01/08/the-ncaa-does-many-things-wrong-but-shockingly-theyre-a-drug-policy-pioneer/feed/0NCAA President Mark Emmert News ConferencetullycTexas A&M University vs University of AlabamaFormer NBA Player Shawne Williams Arrested On Many Charges After Hit-and-Runhttp://thebiglead.com/2015/12/18/former-nba-player-shawne-williams-arrested-on-many-charges-after-hit-and-run/
http://thebiglead.com/2015/12/18/former-nba-player-shawne-williams-arrested-on-many-charges-after-hit-and-run/#respondFri, 18 Dec 2015 14:35:57 +0000http://thebiglead.com/?p=491661Shawne Williams, 17th overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft, was arrested last night on a multitude of charges stemming from a car accident in Memphis. Williams, who has a lengthy past with the law, allegedly hit a car and fled the scene, but returned 20 minutes later. FOX13 Memphis has the details:

Police said Williams had two children under the age of 8 in his 2014 Rolls Royce.

Officers smelled alcohol on Williams and observed him having “blood shot and watery eyes,” according to the police affidavit. Williams was also “hyper” and “speaking at a very fast rate and jumped from various unrelated topics.”

The affidavit also pointed out that Williams had a strong aroma of marijuana.

Wiliams also allegedly yelled and cursed at officers after they found out he had a suspended licence. And he didn’t remember his middle name because he was “baffled.” Here’s the list of charges from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office:

Williams, who spent one season at the University of Memphis before declaring for the draft, was one of the players involved in the trade that brought Goran Dragic to the Miami Heat last season. He was then waived by the Pelicans, picked up by Pistons and traded to the Bucks and waived again. Williams played for 7 teams in his career and actually played 25 minutes a night during the 2011 playoffs as a member of the New York Knicks.

Like this article?

Sign up for the The Big Lead email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning.

Success

Thanks for signing up.
You'll be waking up a little more awesome tomorrow.

Whoa!

Something went wrong.

]]>http://thebiglead.com/2015/12/18/former-nba-player-shawne-williams-arrested-on-many-charges-after-hit-and-run/feed/0New Jersey Nets v New York KnicksCousins of Ron MexicoIndiana Football Player Arrested on Drug Dealing Charges in Apartment Complex Across From Football Stadiumhttp://thebiglead.com/2015/06/17/antonio-allen-drug-arrest-indiana-football/
http://thebiglead.com/2015/06/17/antonio-allen-drug-arrest-indiana-football/#respondWed, 17 Jun 2015 13:25:33 +0000http://thebiglead.com/?p=457299Antonio Allen, a junior defensive back at Indiana, has been suspended following an arrest that includes multiple drug dealing charges. Allen, who led Indiana with 74 tackles last season, was picked up on Tuesday on two counts of dealing methamphetamine, two counts of dealing heroin and one count of dealing cocaine. He also faces multiple possession charges as well as maintaining a public nuisance.

According to Rivals, the level 2 heroin charge means there was a firearm involved, but none of the other outlets reporting on the arrest have picked up that detail.

“With the support of my family, I have entered into a drug treatment facility. I want to apologize to my fiancée, my children, as well as my mother, father, and brothers for the mistake that I made. I also want to apologize to the UFC, my coaches, my sponsors and equally important to my fans. I am taking this treatment program very seriously. Therefore, at this time my family and I would appreciate privacy.”

The UFC has not yet commented on the matter.

UPDATE: Here’s the statement from UFC:

“We support UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones’ decision to enter a drug treatment facility to address his recent issue. While we are disappointed in the failed test, we applaud him for making this decision to enter a drug treatment facility. Jon is a strong, courageous fighter inside the Octagon, and we expect him to fight this issue with the same poise and diligence. We commend him on his decision, and look forward to him emerging from this program a better man as a result.”

Jimmy Neesham is a 23-year old cricketer from New Zealand. Neesham was traveling to a tournament with his team earlier this week when they had to go through the United States. Neesham tweeted the above picture after an U.S. Customs agent drilled three holes in the bat to check for drugs. Law & Order: SVU already put a stop to monkeys being smuggled in basketballs. Let this be a lesson to all those trying to smuggle drugs into the country in sports equipment.

Like this article?

Sign up for the The Big Lead email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning.

Success

Thanks for signing up.
You'll be waking up a little more awesome tomorrow.

Bradley Mousley, an 18-year old Australian amateur tennis star, is facing a 2-year ban from the sport after a positive drug test that showed ecstasy in his system. Mousley was tested following a first round qualifying match in March, which means the test was “in competition.” Mousley’s legal team is pushing for a shorter ban since he “would not have derived any performance benefit from it.” Via The Australian:

Tennis Australia is pushing for a full, two-year ban from all competition as part of a broader campaign to rid its elite junior ranks of what it sees as a reckless party culture involving drugs and high-risk sexual behaviour. Such a sanction would potentially be career-­ending for the teenager, who has already missed this year’s French Open and Wimbledon junior tournaments after receiving formal notification of the positive test.

This isn’t the first time Mousley’s behavior has uspet Team Australia.

Mousley has a strained relationship with Tennis Australia. In the lead-up to this year’s Australian Open, where Mousley won through to the last four of the boys’ singles tournament, he was stripped of TA funding, excluded from its elite coaching and development program and denied wildcard entry into tournaments. He has previously received warnings for breaking curfew and swearing at tennis officials.

A two-year ban at this stage in his career could completely derail his future in the sport. Mousley has won two Junior Grand Slams in doubles.

Queen Elizabeth II, the great grandmother of our beloved Prince George, has not actually tested positive for morphine. Estimate, the horse that won the Gold Cup at the 2013 Royal Ascot, is owned by Queen Elizabeth II. Estimate is the one who tested positive for morphine after a recent race. Just like any athlete worth her hay, Estimate denied having anything to do with the positive test. Via The Daily Mail:

Initial indications are that Estimate’s positive test was caused by her eating contaminated feed, the Palace said.

Sure. Like a champion racehorse doesn’t know what she’s putting in her own body.

Like this article?

Sign up for the The Big Lead email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning.

Success

Thanks for signing up.
You'll be waking up a little more awesome tomorrow.

Whoa!

Something went wrong.

]]>http://thebiglead.com/2014/07/23/bbc-news-scroll-the-queen-has-tested-positive-for-morphine/feed/0BRITAIN-ROYAL-RACING-DOPING-FILESCousins of Ron Mexicoqueen-morphineBRITAIN-ROYAL-RACING-DOPING-FILESJim Irsay Had $29,029 in a Briefcase and a Laundry Bag When He Was Arrestedhttp://thebiglead.com/2014/03/27/jim-irsay-had-29029-in-a-briefcase-and-a-laundry-bag-when-he-was-arrested/
http://thebiglead.com/2014/03/27/jim-irsay-had-29029-in-a-briefcase-and-a-laundry-bag-when-he-was-arrested/#respondThu, 27 Mar 2014 13:30:00 +0000http://thebiglead.com/?p=372725

Medicinal marijuana should be permissible for professional athletes — it’s relatively easy to make the case for legal recreational usage, too — but it’s obviously not like the ban on weed really serves as a be-all, end-all deterrent.

LaMarcus Aldridge of the Blazers appeared on Jim Rome’s Showtime program last week, and Rome tried to bait the Blazers forward into a bloggable soundbite by asking what percentage of NBA players would fail a drug test if they were surprised with it tomorrow morning. “Zero percent,” Aldridge quipped.

As great as it would be for all pro sports leagues to eradicate their weed bans, that doesn’t appear imminent. In the short-term, while they’re scared of PR consequences, perhaps the best route for the NFL and NBA to follow is the MLB’s. This would entail continuing to say that pot is banned, but not actually enforcing it. As ESPN’s Shaun Assael noted earlier this month, nobody on a 40-man roster has been punished for it in the past 10 years.

The NHL, meanwhile, tests for PEDs, but doesn’t punish for recreational usage. That’s probably ideal, but it’ll almost certainly be at least a couple of years until the other leagues join them on that.

This impassioned letter actually originated in late December on VailDaily.com, but I saw it on a friend’s Facebook wall this morning; it doesn’t appear to have spread too much outside of Colorado (where, as you may have heard the past two weeks and beyond, reefer is legal) and it’s basically too good not to pass along.

What starts off as a semi-legitimate complaint about her family’s exposure to pot odor and discussion emanating from other tourists quickly devolves into some silly pretty stereotypes about the achievement capabilities of everyone who smokes weed. It almost reads like a hoax, and if that’s the case then the author deserves kudos, but my impression is that it’s very real.

Her vibrant personality will surely be missed by her vacation neighbors.

Davone Bess’ story has clearly reached the point where it’s not really funny anymore and it’s evident that he needs some help. Word emerged this morning that the Browns receiver had been charged with assaulting a police officer — including allegations of being under the influence of an unknown narcotic and pouring coffee on a cop — and he was released this afternoon.

In the video above from NBC Miami, Bess answers questions with nonsense about Bob Marley and Rastafarianism. At the 1:19-mark, he’s asked about yesterday morning’s weed tweet — the first of the series of odd circumstances — and he said to “ask Brandon Weeden” about it.

This past November, Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe was pulled over in Missouri, allegedly for driving 48 in a 35. Detecting a “strong odor of marijuana”, the K-9 officer searched the vehicle and found what he was looking for.

Speaking with Kansas City’s 810 WHB yesterday, Bowe theorized that he was targeted for reasons other than speeding (via Chiefs Spin):

“I mean everybody, people close around me and my team and the organization know I had nothing to do with that. I was being profiled and it will all come to light in February. It wasn’t a distraction because my teammates know and my family knows. Like I said, I was being watched and being followed. Like I said, that’s how it goes sometimes when you got the millions behind your name.”

Noah Spence, a defensive end for Ohio State, was mysteriously suspended for three games, including last week’s Orange Bowl. Spence’s parents have now revealed the reason: They claim someone slipped ecstasy in his drink and that’s why it showed up on a drug test.

The family says Spence unintentionally took the drug when he was given an open drink by people he didn’t know at a party.

His father says the Big 10 originally suspended Spence for one year because they consider ecstasy a performance-enhancing drug. The NCAA considers ecstasy a street drug, which carries a lesser penalty.

The family appealed and the suspension was dropped to three games.

They appealed a second time, but the three-day suspension was upheld.

How could the Big Ten possibly consider ecstasy a performance-enhancing drug? [via ABC27]

Like this article?

Sign up for the The Big Lead email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning.

Success

Thanks for signing up.
You'll be waking up a little more awesome tomorrow.

Whoa!

Something went wrong.

[UPDATE: Less than 24 hours before Spence was supposed to return from his 3-game suspension, Eleven Warriors is reporting that he failed another drug test, and his status with the team for Saturday’s game against Kent State is unknown.]

Brandon Browner is currently appealing a yearlong suspension from the NFL for a failed drug test. According to a report by Fox Sports’ Mike Garafolo, the Seahawks cornerback recently declined a settlement with the league to reduce the suspension by three months, which would allow the 2014 free agent to sign with a new team next October.

Browner is claiming the urine collector used a damaged cup and then poured his urine from that cup into another one. However, the source said Browner’s request to have the collector testify as part of the appeal hearings was denied, with the league’s medical director stating he spoke to the collector, who disputed Browner’s account.

This situation has some similarities to that of Ryan Braun, who won an appeal against MLB early last year when it was determined that the league’s strict urine collection procedural processes were not adhered to. The arbitrator in Browner’s case is not expected to rule for several weeks.

Though the Seattle Seahawks appeared to be sitting pretty during their bye week at 10-1, they will be fielding a depleted secondary when they return. Earlier this week, we learned that cornerback Brandon Browner is expected to miss 4-6 weeks with a groin injury, and now comes word via NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport that things just got even worse:

Thurmond had appeared in all 11 of Seattle’s game this season, starting three.

The Seahawks have a pretty sizable lead over the 49ers in the NFC West, and would seem to be almost a lock to at least earn a first-round bye in the NFC, so all things considered these losses came at an optimal time.

Details have yet to be reported. A number of questions remain unanswered. But FAU’s decision is not surprising. Should recreational drug use be worse than Gary Pinkel’s drunk driving incident, which resulted in a one game suspension? Or Frank Solich? Or Jim Harbaugh?

Chun was a longtime associate AD at Ohio State. Your FAU next coach rumor mill will begin with anyone who had ties there. How badly does Jim Tressel want to get back in the game?

Like this article?

Sign up for the The Big Lead email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning.

Success

Thanks for signing up.
You'll be waking up a little more awesome tomorrow.

Whoa!

]]>http://thebiglead.com/2013/10/30/carl-pelini-resigned-from-fau-over-illegal-drug-use-escorted-off-campus-by-police/feed/0Carl Pelini at FAUtyduffyPigeon Racing World Rocked as Six Belgian Birds Fail Test for PEDshttp://thebiglead.com/2013/10/26/pigeon-racing-world-rocked-as-six-belgian-birds-fail-test-for-peds/
http://thebiglead.com/2013/10/26/pigeon-racing-world-rocked-as-six-belgian-birds-fail-test-for-peds/#respondSat, 26 Oct 2013 13:20:08 +0000http://thebiglead.com/?p=339146Pigeon racing is apparently huge in Belgium and earlier this week the world of racing pigeons was rocked by reports that six bold birds failed drug tests for banned substances.

According to the report, five birds were nailed for using a human painkiller that combats inflammation, while the other flunking feathery rebel tested positive for cocaine, obviously. Pretty amazing all by its lonesome, but the best sentence to emerge from this news reads as follows:

Top officials at an association of pigeon fanciers in the country said they were shocked at the news.

Yes, pigeon fanciers.

There’s also this:

Others in the sport said that they were not surprised that pigeons had been caught doping because pigeon racing has gained in popularity in recent years, becoming a big-money, even a glamorous, endeavor.

Glamorous, without question.

Like this article?

Sign up for the The Big Lead email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning.

Success

Thanks for signing up.
You'll be waking up a little more awesome tomorrow.

Whoa!

Something went wrong.

Oh, and it would be a crime not to mention this dropping:

Last May, a pigeon named Usain Bolt — for the Olympic sprinting champion from Jamaica — was sold to a Chinese businessman for about $430,000.